Corn Islands and into Cost Rica

Well the trip out to the Corn Islands was a mission and a half:

Up at six for a bus out to Managua (good so far) then on arriving in Managua I found out that I´d just missed the bus to Rama by 5 min and had to wait 4 hours for the next one (sigh....) That bus ended up taking eight hours for a five hour trip (why must we stop for half an hour in every tiny town along the way???) meaning I´d missed the boat out to Bluefields on the coast and have to stay a night in Rama.

Arriving in the frontier port town of Rama at night was not an ideal situation so I jumped on a bicycle taxi to take me to the hotel I´d chosen from the guidebook. Probably not entirely necessary as the hotel was only three houses up from the bus station but it´s always good to feel safe.

Pretty sure the hotel was a brothel (I was asked if I wanted a single or a ¨matrimonial¨) but I actually had a surprisingly peaceful sleep. I awoke at six to the news that I´d just missed the morning fastboat to Bluefields and would have to wait for another 19 people to show up for the next boat to leave, which it eventually did. At two in the afternoon.......

In Bluefields I was informed that the boat across to the islands had left an hour ago and the next one was in two days time so I just gave up and taxied out to the airport and forked out 100 bucks for a return flight. If I had have just done this in Managua it would have only cost 65 dollars more and saved me two and a half days frustration, live and learn.

The next morning was the flight, another taxi and the final boat over to Little Corn Island. As soon as I saw it appear on the horizon I new it had all been worth it. Absolutely beautiful.

The port side

the beach in front of my cabaña

one of the many trails criss-crossing the island

Found a bed sharing a room with three girls I´d met on the boat and then went and sat out under the coconut trees on the pristine white sand beach with a few beers and guitars to watch the light fade over the caribbean......

The next morning I went diving with Eva and Maga, two Icelandic girls from my cabaña out to Grant´s cave (had to go to Grant´s cave!) and some other tunnels nearby. The water was amazingly clear and whilst there was not a whole lot of marine life about squeezing through the narrow, jagged tunnels with shafts of white light piercing the darkness at strange angles was a truly memorable experience.

The girls joking around

That night was a big party with many bottles of rum, a bonfire and swimming under the stars until 5am. The next day was unsurprisingly spent lounging around in a hammock and unfortunately not doing any more diving, although with no ATM on the island money was becoming an issue :S

So after just three days (I could have spent a month there easily) it was sadly back to the main Island and the airport.

Three days of travel later I was at the border of Costa Rica, where I find myself at the moment. Have been travelling around for the last week with Inga, a german friend from my New Zealand hostel days, more soon......